Ask-A-Linguist Message Details

Subject:

Quantitative Research in Applied Linguistics

Question:

Hi, I'm Kisno from Indonesia and I work as a freelance applied linguist
in Batam, Indonesia. I have some students that are still confused and
stuck when doing a quantitative research in applied linguistics
especially in the language assessment topic. They are now attending
a literature major in their university but they get nothing from the
campus. Most of them are doing a two-variable language testing, but
in fact their lecturer forces them to apply three-variable research
which actually it is only two variables, for the sake of plagiarism by
the lecturer. What they do not get is the solution upon the problem.
Would anyone help me to find out the best solution upon their
problems? Is there any protection upon their research or is there
anyone intending to accept and publish their work before their
paperwork are stolen? Thank you.

Reply:

The issue of how much the instructor's involvement in shaping a student's work
allows the instructor to claim some degree of "authorship" in the publication that
results from that work is a judgment call. Some instructors help students get
published, but with the condition that the work completed under the instructor's
guidance includes the instructor as one of the authors. This process ideally is one
that teaches the student about the steps toward publication in professional journals,
and how to frame a research piece to allow it to qualify for publication in one journal
or another.
You suggest that in the case you are describing the instructor is overstepping the
boundary (perhaps by publishing the work without attribution to the student), and
may also be giving the students an imperfect education in quantitative research
methods for applied linguistics.
I understand your question to be more about the recourse that these students might
have than it is about how to help them understand 2-variable or 3-variable language
testing.
- Is there evidence of the instructor publishing student work (with or without
attribution to the student) previously? IF so, then the students can contact the
administration with copies of the student paper and the published work and request
help to assure that this practice stop.
- Is there a particular journal where the instructor publishes regularly (using the
student work as his/her own)? If so, contact with the editor of the journal presenting
evidence that a particular paper contains research designed, conducted, and
analyzed by a student whose name has been left off. The best evidence would be the
drafts and final copy of the student work with dates that precede the date of
submission for publication of the work, especially where the phrasing or conclusions
in the submission are identical to the student work.
- Does the instructor make a claim in the description of the course or the syllabus
that student work will be reworked by the instructor for publication? If so, the
students in the course may want to raise their own conditions about under what
circumstances the instructor may offer their work for publication (e.g., first author
named often is assumed to be the lead author; should that be the student?) How
substantial does the revision by the instructor need to be?
Hope that these comments are useful to you or your student contacts.